


Doctor Doctor Give Me The News

by QuickSilverFox3



Category: Campaign (Podcast), Campaign Skyjacks (Podcast), Illimat (Board Game)
Genre: Fake Injury, He is not a fan, M/M, Mutual Pining, Necromancy, Pre Episode 26, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash, Teasing, Travis is experiencing an Emotion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-14
Updated: 2019-11-14
Packaged: 2021-01-30 17:35:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21432082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QuickSilverFox3/pseuds/QuickSilverFox3
Summary: Travis is determined to annoy Dref, claiming to be injured and pulling the same card over and over again. What will Dref do about it?
Relationships: Orimar Vale & Dref Wormwood, Travis Matagot/Dref Wormwood
Comments: 8
Kudos: 32





	Doctor Doctor Give Me The News

**Author's Note:**

> [ My Tumblr!](https://inkformyblood.tumblr.com) Requests are always welcome!

“W-why are you here Travis?”

Travis fanned out his deck and closed it again with a snap, barely even glancing at the top card before repeating the action again, the rustle of paper against paper reflexively soothing to Dref’s ears.

“Can’t I just be here? Why are you here?” Travis asked, plucking a random card from the deck, glancing at it with a frown before returning it. It was an uncomfortable position the other man had placed himself in, Dref realised as he glanced over with a frown. One leg was stretched out to rest on the desk, foot flexed so the heel barely hovered above the map pinned to it’s surface, while the other was propped onto the arm of the captain’s chair.

Dref leaned to the side to stare at Travis fully, now no longer hidden behind the imposing figure of Captain Orimar Vale, sitting on the edge of his desk at Dref’s insistence.

“I-I am, I am busy Travis,” Dref said firmly. 

Orimar remained as expressionless as ever, dead gaze locked on the closed door. Dref could feel the bonds tying them together ripple ever so slightly, the hairs on the back of his neck rising as of response to a chill. 

Dref slowly turned his gaze back to the captain, dreading what he might see. Was that dark force back, ready to try and wrench Orimar from his control? Would Orimar turn towards him? The sword was still in his belt, had seemed pointless to remove it when it was a pivotal part of the captain appearing to still be alive.

The captain winked.

Dref slowly let out the breath he had been holding, eyes shut for the briefest of seconds before he shook his head. It was pointless to wonder about the future, and yet the anxiety weighed on him like a stone. 

Carefully he nudged the exposed tendon in the captain’s jaw, hearing the teeth click together as he did so.

“I’m injured.”

Dref paused, staring into the cavernous hole he had made in Orimar’s jaw, at the metal implements currently gently holding skin and muscle out of the way so he could reach the eroding part.

“H-how?” 

Travis didn’t get hurt, not truly. Dref had seen him with a wound from hip to hip, entrails exposed and glistening in the light of the swinging lamp as the ship shook around them, cannons blazing. The mere thought of it turned Dref’s stomach, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed compulsively, fighting against the urge to vomit. And yet Travis had been more concerned with the blood now decorating his coat, deep blue fabric stained even darker in places.

“How do people normally injure themselves? I tripped. If the Captain wasn’t such a big dummy, and hadn’t  _ died _ -” 

Dref hissed at the shapeshifter, whose voice had raised to slightly below a yell, directed at Orimar’s back as if the Captain was simply ignoring him rather than being an unhearing corpse animated through Dref’s magic.

“-then maybe the ship would be in better condition.”

“I-isn’t that, isn’t that your j-job?” Dref pointed out, before sighing, curiosity winning out over common sense as it knew it would.

Travis didn’t seem injured, almost seeming to preen as Dref looked him over critically, eyes lingering on the undamaged knees of his trousers, the fluidity of his hands with no visible cuts or scrapes he would expect.

“No. It’s Spit’s job,” Travis scoffed, rolling his eyes at Dref as if scolding a child, and Dref felt his ears burn automatically.

“Anyway, I hurt my leg,” Travis continued, drawing another Luminary and scoffing at it, tucking it back into the deck almost angrily.

“Your l-leg,” Dref repeated flatly, slipping one metal pick, the whole thing straight except for a sudden hook at the end, from the Captain’s neck, placing it carefully on the desk.

“Yeah, I hurt my leg. You are a doctor aren’t you? Fix it.”

Travis’s expression was unreadable, but the spark of mischief in his eyes was undeniable. It was an irritation, he was irritating, but Dref was fond of him regardless. Things wouldn’t feel right on the ship without Travis, and so Dref stood.

His back cracked, in a way that made even Travis wince. The captain remained still and silent, an array of gleaming metal sticking out of a hole in his neck. Dref would play along with whatever ruse Travis was conducting, and then he would be able to stitch Orimar’s neck back up in peace, the door firmly barred. 

Dref checked the lock on the door, a heavy plank of burnished wood barring all the most determined of errants. And the number of people in that group were few, if any. Mostly just Gable. And Gable could be trusted not to break down a door without at least knocking first.

  
  


“W-what’s wrong?”

The look of surprise that flickered over Travis’s face was all the more rewarding for its rarity. A low burning heat settled in the base of Dref’s skull, his heart beat slightly faster in his chest. 

But Travis recovered quickly, his usual languid smile unfurling across his face like a banner.

“How am I meant to know?”

Another fluttering of the cards, before one was snatched out of apparently thin air with a snap that made Dref jump.

“If I l-look, will you, will you go?”

Travis pouted, eyes rolling from one side of the room to the other as he thought in typical dramatic fashion.

“Fine,” Travis sighed.

Dref left the captain sitting on the desk, a silent nudge to keep him there. The threads tightened around his fingers like a vice, Dref tending against the prospect of pain, but they soon relaxed.

“W-which leg?”

Travis’s eyes rolled up Dref’s form, making the doctor shift nervously and tug his coat, a few dark stains lingering on his cuffs, before finally stopping at his face. Dref chewed his lip, but held Travis’s gaze, feeling his cheeks flush at the sustained stare. Travis’s eyes were a rich brown, almost honey coloured in the light.

“My left,” Travis answered, not even blinking as he held Dref’s gaze. A rush of warmth ran through Dref, the feeling of his heart twisting in his chest taking his breath away for a brief moment.

He’d felt this before, the pining for what he couldn’t have, but never for a person, never for some _ one _ . Dref had left everything he knew behind him in search of something more, in search of the knowledge he pined for. 

It was- he couldn’t- no yet. He had to think about it, study it from all angles somewhere far away from Travis’s piercing gaze.

Dref broke first, dropping his gaze to Travis’s leg. He could see the grin sharpen, teeth bared like that of a wolf or, in Travis’s case, a coyote. Dref shuddered, never more aware of Travis’s other-ness than in that moment, and Dref had been present for several of his ‘Goopenings’, bones cracking and reforming, and the noise-

He looked at Travis’s leg, suspended as it was over the Captain’s map, tiny pins stuck into it’s surface and labels almost worn away by age and the press of fingers against them. The more common paths were red against the yellowed paper, thinned by years of tracing the routes to almost expose the wood beneath. 

Travis wasn’t injured, this was some game, some trick to embarrass Dref. 

He didn’t know what possessed him, some sudden surge of spite or determination. But when Dref next blinked, he found himself sitting on the Captain’s chair, Travis a burning line of heat against his back, one hand resting on Travis’s tensed thigh as the other carefully prodded at his knee.

Travis wasn’t moving, Dref very much suspected that he wasn’t breathing. 

The Captain, when he was alive, had attached a mirror to the corner of his room, running from floor to just below the ceiling. Dref didn’t want to guess at its purpose and refused to listen to Travis’s loud speculation whenever he remembered about it, but for now he was grateful.

It was positioned in such a way that the mirror reflected the Captain’s chair perfectly.

Travis’s eyes were blown wide, eyes dark and staring in disbelief at the back of Dref’s head, as if he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. His cheeks were hot and red, mouth open as if to say something, but he was stunned into silence. Travis’s hands were frozen on the Luminary deck. Slowly, as if trying to not startle Dref, Travis slipped the deck back into one of his many pockets, hands trembling as he did so.

Dref pressed his hand slightly into Travis’s thigh, feeling the corded muscle there tense even more beneath his grip. It made his head spin, an odd rush of power, not dissimilar to that of issuing orders to the Captain. It was a tightrope act between giving too much of himself away, warring with the need to know more, to see more. Dref  _ liked  _ the feeling of holding power beneath the palms of his hands, even if it was only the power to stopper the words in Travis’s throat. 

He could almost see them trapped there as Travis gulped audibly, leg flexing beneath Dref’s gasp as if trying to kick, Adam’s Apple bobbing in his throat. 

“I- I can’t feel any injury,” Dref said softly. Travis’s breath was warm on the back of his neck, the man leaning forward despite himself. Dref ran his other hand further forward, touch alternating between feather light and slightly too hard. Travis’s teeth were digging into his bottom lip hard enough to leave indents when he gasped for air, the noise soft and wet.

  
  


Dref was struck by how fragile the human body was, as he ran his fingers over the jut of bone in Travis’s ankle. Travis hissed in surprise, leg spasming as Dref’s fingers slipped over his sole. Travis was ticklish. 

Dref ducked his head to hide his smile, warmth blossoming in his chest. It was sweet, and unexpected. Travis Matagot, con-man, swindler, the man with a thousand names and four animal forms, was ticklish.

“A-and your ankle is fine.”

Dref sat back upright. Travis was so close to him now, the soft scent of sandalwood from his hair mingled with the copper tang that seemed to fill the air around Dref regardless of what he tried. 

Dref could see in the mirror as Travis stared in wonder at the back of Dref’s head, face twisted into something so reverent it almost hurt to see it. As if drawn by the invisible hand of fate, or by one of the strings looped around Dref’s fingers, Travis leaned forward, head tilted to one side as if to place a kiss on the back of Dref’s neck-

“L-leave now Travis.”

Travis swayed forward and backwards, a ship suddenly knocked off course with Dref’s sudden movement away from the chair, away from him before he even made contact. 

“What?” Travis asked, blinking in slow surprise as he stared up at Dref.

“Y-you are, you are f-fine. G-go now. I have t-to, h-have to finish f-fixing the C-c-captain’s jaw.”

Dref hoped his voice sounded stronger than he felt, tongue catching on more words than usual it felt like as he wavered. The back of his neck was damp, a phantom promise of what could have been if Dref had only been braver.

Travis’s face closed up like a flower, mouth flattening as he pushed himself up, chair legs screeching on the floor as he shoved it backwards. He took a step towards Dref, eyes cold and closed off, animalistic in a way Dref had not seen on Travis’s face before, not even as an animal, before he turned on his heel and strode out of the room. The fluttering of the Luminary deck was no longer a comfort, instead it was gunfire, unrelentless and unceasing. Travis raised the board and moved through the door, not looking back as Dref shut it behind him with trembling hands, the noise like a death knell, as he hurried to re-bar it.

Dref let out the breath he had been holding, pressing his forehead against the cold wood, tears pricking just behind his eyes. The fear that had gripped his heart, cold and unrelenting lessened it’s icy grip, and he waited there, frozen and trembling, until he could move again.

“I-I’m a coward,” Dref mumbled, pressing both palms flat against the wood to steady himself as he drew back to his full height, the old aches and twinges in his face returning, small stabs of pain.

Captain Orimar’s hand was cold on his shoulder, none of the warmth normally associated with human touch present from his dead flesh. Part of his mind noticed this, filing it away for future improvements to the Captain, needing to conserve this illusion for as long as possible. The rest was suddenly very occupied with not screaming and alerting half the ship to the fact there was a problem and the captain was dead in one fell swoop.

Dref trembled as he turned to look at the Captain, his hand slipping from Dref’s shoulder as the doctor moved. Orimar looked as expressionless as ever, body motionless from his new position, standing, arms returning to hang at his sides.

“W-what was t-that for?” Dref asked the captain uselessly, not expecting an answer.

The Captain winked.


End file.
